Rocking “Rock Bottom” tractor

rock bottom peterbilt

This 1995 Peterbilt 379 EXT custom semi tractor and trailer has got a lot of custom work on it. There’s custom on just about every part of it, from what I can tell. That grill is very elaborate and very custom. Have you ever seen one like it? The whole unit is orange and chrome, with red Peterbilt labels here and there and the “Reliable” logo.

Reliable Carriers Inc is a Transportation/trucking/railroad company based in Canton, Michigan, and, with over 300 tractor trailers, it services all major auto manufacturers all over the continental US and parts of Canada.

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This truck they called “Rock Bottom.” It looked like this when it was entered in the 2007 Big Rig Build Off, and was a winner there. It has a Caterpillar 3406E 435 horsepower engine in it. Not sure what it looks like now, though.

It was built by Jim Raines of S & J Truck Sales in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as well as Raines son and others.

Back when Rock Bottom was made and won the custom semi competition, Ten Four magazine wrote of the truck, “The project started out as a 1995 Pete and two blank frame rails. Tim Whitcomb of Evers Body Shop chopped seven inches off the top of the cab and converted the doors to “suicide” style. Dave Jones of Jones Performance built a custom hood and very oversized fenders for the rig, while Mike from Roadworks produced most of the custom stainless pieces. Michael Raines of S & J designed and built the custom headlight brackets and Hoosier Truck & Trailer sprayed the paint. The truck features a long 310-inch wheelbase, side-pipes, smooth stainless deck plates, super single tires with shaved (narrowed) WTI fenders, and a custom interior done by Marcus from Waynedale, Indiana.”

rock bottom peterbilt

Pictures of this custom semi have been labeled and posted around the internet as a 1970 Peterbilt done at Knuckle Dragger Customs, according to netizen JesseArkhipobaChaos, who posted the images to Deviant Art. Does anyone know more about “Knuckle Dragger Customs,” though? There’s a Knuckle Dragger Choppers that is no longer available through their Facebook page. And it seems like they might be associated with West Coast Choppers, but I’m not sure. Let us know if you know.

48 Foot Semi Trailer With Some “Expansive” Features

48 Foot Semi Trailer

48 foot semi trailer, 7 horses or 2 horses and a car, 3 slide outs and a 38 foot lift-up roof… This could be a luxury trailer for RVs and their horses.

It’s a Rivenlee trailer done up to not be extremely hard on the eyes… it’s a 2007 luxury horse trailer semi unit, and has quite a few features on it.

It has 3 slide outs (these slide outs can double the interior space if you have them on both sides), 2 in the living area over the turntable kichenette and lounge), and 1 slide out at the rear with tack, toilet and laundry.

Then this RV / horse trailer unit has an expandable roof. a 38 foot hydrolically raised one, and this gives 2 bedrooms and an office upstairs.

The lower deck has room enough for 7 horses with side load and yard storage underneath.

The deck in the rear has a toilet stall and a shower/bath area. These areas are metal wall sections. Actually, the back area is pretty much all metal. It has a washer dryer section here, too.

It can fit a car if you want only to take 2 horses.

48 Foot Semi Trailer 48 Foot Semi Trailer (4) 48 Foot Semi Trailer

The semi luxury unit has an Onan 5 KVa generator for power, a roof area that doubles as a viewing platform, EBS disc brakes, air suspension, compensating turntable, auto self-levelling system, and alloy rims on the tires.

Luxury Custom Motorhome

This custom motorhome has a “stacker trailer,” which means a car stacker trailer. You can drive your car onto a lift pad that comes out from the inside of the trailer. Then the lift will bring your car (with you in it, generally), into the trailer). In other words, you don’t need to drive up a ramp into the trailer.

The unit is a 2007 Quad with and the stacker trailer matches, as you can see. The lift is for a 3,500-pound car (although the car the company used to lift into the semi trailer unit is a 4,200-pound one, and the trailer can fit 2 (small) cars. The cars don’t need a lot of clearance to get into this trailer easily, because of the lifting system. The trailer is 35 feet.

The truck is a brand new Volvo 780 semi truck. It has matching a matching awning, a wireless remote for the lift, basement storage lockers, outside compartments. “You have Huge storage,” the custom luxury tractor-trailer company says of their product.

It also has a 2 Ton A/C – Heating unit built into a custom bench, an upgraded fiberglass wall interior, and, as with most of these custom luxury RV semis, whether you buy one they make or bring in a vehicle and have them convert it/add to it, there are a lot of customization options (which we’ve written about in some of our other posts).

Below is a photo of a RV luxury motorcoach interior that give an idea what can be done to the inside of a motorhome. It’s not from this particular RV — they didn’t provide photos, but this is the standard interior layout. They’re custom though, so people order a lot of various things (high quality photo – view on large screen). To see another custom interior motorhome, click here.

This Trailer has a 30 foot side wall with a total length of about 35 ft with the V nose and tongue it has two 12k duel tire axles in this case giving you about 12,000 lbs for cars and equipment. Visit Powerhouse Coach (click here). See another luxury motorhome with interior (click here).

Custom Coach with Stacker Trailer

Top 5 Korean Dramas of All Time

top 5 korean dramas

1. My Love from the Star (2014): Romance, fantasy and comedy

My Love from the Star is a fantasy romance between a top actress and a man who has supernatural powers. Extra terrestrial Do Min Jun landed on Earth in the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897), but 400 years later in modern times he falls in love with actress Chun Song-Yi. This drama attracted many foreign tourists to Seoul, as it displayed popular districts for food and shopping in city areas.

2. The Heirs (2013): Romance

If Gossip girls disclosed the lives of privileged teenagers in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, The Heirs unveils the lives of young inheritors from families of Chaebol [Korean form of business conglomerate] in Korea. But the main male character Kim Tan, who is the heir of the biggest conglomerate in Korea, falls in love with Cha Eun-Sang from a poor family background. His love for Eun-Sang causes a conflict with his parents. What decision will he make in the end? His family’s wealth or love?

3. Iris (2009): Action

If you are a fan of the action genre, this drama is highly recommended for you. It was Korea’s first blockbuster drama. The story is based on a spy thriller between the two Koreas, and it portrays betrayal and romance in the National Security System (NSS). Lee Byung-Hun, who made himself known as G.I. Joe’s Storm Shadow in Hollywood, starred in Iris.

4. Goong [The Princess Hours] (2006): Romance and drama

Goong [The Princess Hours] is a romance drama which focuses on the lives of Crown Prince Lee Shin and his new bride Shin Chae-Kyeong, who is a commoner. This drama depicts 21st century Korea’s imperial family, but imagining that Korea has still maintained its monarchy since it gained independence from Japan in 1945. Therefore, viewers can see harmony between tradition and modern in architectures, costumes and food.

5. Dae Jang Geum [The Great Janggeum] (2003): Historical fiction

Daejanggeum [The Great Janggeum] is a perfect drama to introduce traditional Korean history and cultures including food and costumes, as it is set in Korea during Joseon Kingdom (1392-1897). The story is based on the historical figure Janggeum, who was the first female royal physician of the Joseon dynasty. It was exported to 90 countries. In Sri Lanka, it marked 99 percent of the viewing rate.

 

Some Mind-Blowing Facts About Billionaire Warren Buffett

warren buffet

One of the richest businesspeople, American (Omaha) Warren Buffet, in his 80’s, is looked to to see if there is anything we can learn from his words or his life.

Some notable points:

Warren buffet earned 99 percent of his wealth after his 50th birthday. According to investor Dan Kanivas, although this may seem unintuitive to many of us, this phenomenon was “essentially a preordained outcome for him” because of the nature of compound investment.

Note, too, that Buffett at age 50 had been investing for 39 years. Buffett began making money selling chewing gum, soda, and magazines door-to-door, and worked in his grandfather’s store. He also sold newspapers, golfballs, stamps, and detailed cars. When the investor filed his first tax return (in 1944 when he was around 14 years old), he took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.

When Buffett was 11, he bough 3 shares each for himself and his sister of Cities Service Preferred.

In high school, he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a farm worked by a tenant farmer.

When Buffett finished college, he had over $90,000 in savings (in 2009 dollars). Buffett is known for his value investing and personal frugality.

Although Buffett is among the people who control the most wealth, he has pledged to give away 99 percent of his wealth to philanthropic causes, primarily the Gates Foundation. The investor gives his money mostly to charity, not his children.

Bill Gates met him for the first time only 5 years ago and did not think the two businesspeople had anything in common. Gates had scheduled his meeting only for half hour, but when he met Buffett, the meeting lasted for 10 hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Buffet.

As for stocks, the investor owns relatively few, and the stocks he owns, he tries to hold “forever.”

Buffett has been remarked for his reluctance from public speaking, jet set socializing, private jet charter flying (although he owns the world’s largest private jet company). Instead, the investor relaxes at the end of a day by making popcorn and watching TV. He also plays bridge online several times per week. At least 4 times per week, it has been reported.

Some business advice from Warren Buffett: Here’s the 2 rules he gives to his CEOs (his company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 50-60 companies, and he writes the CEOs of these companies only once per year, giving the CEOs goals for the year):

Rule number 1: Do not lose any of your shareholder’s money.
Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

This could be good advice for smaller business owners, who are looking for a small business advisor, especially if their business grows enough to have shareholders.
Tips by Warren Buffett (actually, I’m not sure if these are based on direct quotes, paraphrases, or just lessons based on Buffett’s words, but here is a set of basic investment ideas widely circulating):

On Earning: “Never depend on a single income; make investments and create a second source.”

On spending: “If you buy things you do not need, soon you will have to sell things you need.”

On savings: “Do not save what is left after spending, spend what is left after saving.”

On taking risk: “Never test the depth of a river with both feet.”

On Investment: “Do not put all your eggs in one basket.”

On Expectation: “Honesty is a very expensive gift, do not expect it from cheap people.”

Maybe we should also note that Buffett himself had teachers, and the one he usually mentions is his respected investment/ business teacher Benjamin Graham, who wrote a few books in the 30s and 40s that are still looked to today for information on security analysis and value investing.

Can YOU Name These 80s Movies?

80s movies

80s films, like a lot of 80s most popular cultural works, are admired by some people and are criticized by others. For reasons not conclusively known, lots of popular art in the 80s was lighthearted, non-serious, even materialistic, but at the same time a lot was fun, lively, energetic. In film, these lighter 80s movies were viewed by many as different from the decade of the 70s in films, when there was a lot of serious, gritty cinema.

Can you name these 80s films from their images?

In the interests of fair play, I won’t give away the answers. No ruining the fun from us. Instead, I’ll give some hints for those who don’t have the answers right off:

1. Who are you going to call?

2. The pitcher is bad to the bone.

3. You may be surprised. Whatever it is, you can tell your father. He’ll understand.

4. Be careful what you say to babies.

5. Read my eyelids.

80s movies

6. You have 20 seconds to answer.

7. Totally excellent.

8. You can make friends anywhere, even detention.

9. Candy in space.

10. Never say die.

11. Big Top comedy.

12. Italian artists names are known to all 80s kids.

A Couple Years Old Motorcoaches (Like This One) are Around Half the Price of New

Like the 2016 model we wrote about, this RV is made by Show Hauler. It’s a few years old, but it will stand to give us an example of what the market is like for a Class C vehicle that’s a couple of years old, and those who are interested can compare that with the 2016 International Lonestar.

This unit is a Freightliner Coronado Garage unit. It’s powered by a Detroit 60 series (an engine that has been remarked as quite powerful) that has about 525 horsepower. The transmission is a 13-speed Eaton smartshift.

It compares pretty well roughly with the 2016 Lonestar motorcoach, but this one is half the price. For the 2016 they are asking over half a million US dollars, and this one is listed for $230,000 US dollars.

Some of the selling features of this one:

Solar panels: This unit comes with 4 130-watt solar panels. These work besides the generator (10,000 kvw) that does most of the power supplying. The bath and kitchen are supplied with water from a 200-gallon fresh water tank.

Pushing this large luxury RV along is that Detroit 60. This engine can boast that since 1992, more people have selected the series 60 than any other heavy-duty engine. Why the engine is so popular, according to Detroit (the company), is a combination of performance, fuel economy, low cost of operation, reliability, long life to overhaul, driver satisfaction, ease of service, warranty satisfaction, ratings flexibility, electronic controls, lightweight, and residual value. Looking at numbers (up to 2004 though), the Series 60 sold over 600,000 units, while Cummins N14/ISX/SIG and CAT 3406 C15/16 sold only around 400,000 units.

Motorcoaches

These large luxury RVs are very popular, but kind of seem unaffordable to me, at least for most people. One option is to get a vehicle you buy somewhere else or have already outfitted with a motorcoach from a big RV custom shop. There are a number of these. The project begins at around $70,000 still. And there are those who make their own RV customizations, which we always like to see photos of. Send them to us if you have one.

Quite the Custom Motorhome

This International Lonestar has been outfitted with a luxury coach by a company called Loyalty Mobile Innovations. It has a kind of unique look though. Maybe that’s fitting, because the RV motorcoach company say themselves all homes are unique in design and built to the custom needs of their owners.

Here’s some of the options a person gets when they work out the builds of these RVs:

Walls: you can add additional walls and where you want the walls to make different sized rooms and sound barriers, and the walls can be covered with various things: laminate, leather, wallpaper, paint.

Floors: There’s a range of options available for RV flooring, like cork, wood, tile and laminate.

Cabinets: storage in an RV is pretty important, and these RV companies can set up the shelves so they fit in with the overall layout and design. Of course, you might want to move your storage later, but you can give it a shot at the start. The shelves also can be made with wood, metals, and laminates.

Lighting is important anywhere, I think you’d say. You can get sunlights, windows, incandescents, LEDs, and new fiber optic lighting, and you can have them put the lights in the ceiling or walls where you want them.

Countertops can also be made in a variety of shapes and out of different materials. And they can be finished differently too.

Sinks, faucets, other bathroom and kitchen fixtures, doorknobs, windows, can be made with various durable materials of various aesthetics.

Sounds systems and entertainment systems, projectors, office amentities, electricity distribution, electrical outlets, and the like are another consideration.

As you can see, you can customize just about anything when you have one of these built. And for the prices, you might hope that was the case. These start in the hundreds of thousands. The top of the lines ones like the 2016 International Lonestar RV motorcoachs can be over half a million dollars. Used, you can get these types of units for over a hundred thousand or thereabouts starting, and a quarter of a million for the more elaborate ones.

RVing In Style... Actually, Luxury (2)RVing In Style